HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Very few people celebrate their 25th
birthday like Steve Francis.

Francis scored 16 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and handed out
nine assists to lead the Houston Rockets to an 89-83 victory
over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The 6-3 Francis just missed his fifth career triple-double. He
was forced to pick up the slack due to the absence of center
Kelvin Cato, who did not play because of a left ankle sprain.

"I think the defense is what won it for us," Francis said. "We
needed a game like this against a tough-caliber team like
Minnesota."

Kevin Willis, who started for Cato, left midway through the
second quarter because of back spasms.

Cuttino Mobley scored 26 points and Kenny Thomas also totaled 16
for the Rockets, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the
Timberwolves.

"It felt good," Mobley said. "We just have to play like that on
a consistent basis. I'm happy with our defense. We just played
as a team."

Kevin Garnett scored 19 points and Chauncey Billups added 17 for
Minnesota, which dropped one game behind the Los Angeles Lakers
in fourth place in the Western Conference.

The Rockets bounced back from their worst loss of the season, a
115-76 decision at Milwaukee on Tuesday.

"They were more aggressive than we were tonight," Garnett said.
"They got blasted by 39 (in their last game) and we should have
known they would come out and be excited to play. They were
more aggressive from the jump."

"We'll burn that tape of (Tuesday) night's game but we will come
back and watch tonight's game when we want to be inspired,"
Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.

The Rockets led, 57-53, with 5:38 left in the third quarter and
scored 21 of the next 37 points, making it 80-67 with 5:47 to
play in the game. Thomas scored eight of his 16 points in that
span.

The Timberwolves answered with an 8-2 run over the next 2:30,
cutting the deficit to 82-75.

"Coming back after a miserable, miserable game in Milwaukee, we
played a team that is fighting for first place," Tomjanovich
said. "I was really interested to see how they would respond and
they responded in a big way."

Minnesota committed 16 turnovers, leading to 18 points for
Houston. It fell 1 1/2 games behind first-place Dallas in the
Midwest Division.

"Right from the beginning, they attacked us," said Timberwolves
guard Wally Szczerbiak, who scored 13 points. "We had a tough
time hitting each other with simple passes. It was frustrating
because we can't play that way and win."

"When you've got two perennial All-Stars on their team like
(Garnett and Szczerbiak), you've got to make them work hard,"
Francis said.